Rohingya language
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| Rohingya | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Burma, Bangladesh | |
| Region: | Arakan region of Burma, south-eastern Chittagong region of Bangladesh | |
| Total speakers: | ||
| Language family: | Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Eastern Zone Bengali-Assamese Rohingya |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | inc | |
| ISO 639-3: | rhg | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Rohingya is a language spoken by the Rohingya Muslim people of Arakan (Rakhine), Burma (Myanmar). It is linguistically similar to the Chittagonian dialect spoken in neighboring south-eastern Chittagong region of Bangladesh [1]. It also has a large number of Urdu, Persian, Hindi, Bengali, Arabic, Burmese and English words.
Contents |
[edit] Script
[edit] History
Rohingyalish is the modern writing system of Rohingya people. The word Rohingyalish is derived from the two words Rohingya and English due to the fact that it uses mainly Roman script which is completely different from that of the previously used scripts such as Arabic, Urdu, Hanifi-Script and Burmese.
Written in Arabic script, the first Rohingya language texts are more than 300 years old. While Arakan was under British rule (1826–1948), Rohingya people used mainly English and Urdu languages as basic means of written communication. Since the independence in 1948, the national language Burmese has been used in all official communications. Since early 1960s, Rohingya scholars have started to realize the need for a writing system for their own dialect which is different from that of Arabic, Urdu, Persian and Burmese.
In 1975 Master Sultan and his colleagues had developed a writing system using Arabic script. Due to major shortcomings in Arabic script to represent the dialect, some other scholars have soon adopted Urdu script to narrow the gap. Since Rohingya dialect is one of the most difficult Asian languages, the Arabic and Urdu scripts cannot produce all needed sounds. Therefore, most of the Rohingyas still find it quite difficult to read either Arabic or Urdu script versions of the language.
In other hand, Molana Hanif and his colleagues, have developed a new set of right-to-left oriented alphabets that are mainly based on Arabic script except a few from Latin and Burmese. This approach solved the reading problem in certain degrees and received appreciation from Rohingya Islamic scholars for whom media of study is purely in Arabic and Urdu. However, the new script got criticism for being very clumsy and the alphabets very similar to each other requiring longer memorization time and careful writing to avoid confusion. More importantly, the major drawback is that it would require enormous work to standardize the new alphabets in today's computers and Internet media and the hassle to write in right-to-left direction.
Soon afterwards, a complete radical approach has been taken by E.M. Siddique to develop the Rohingya language using Latin alphabets only so as to eliminate all possible difficulties to write in today's electronic media such as Internet, Computers and mobile phones. The result is a quick to learn excellent writing system known as Rohingyalish that comprises 26 English alphabets and five accented vowels, along with the two Latin characters that were carefully selected to represent the two distinguished Asian sounds known as the tongue rolling and the nasal sounds.
[edit] Alphabet
| A a | B b | C c | Ç ç | D d | E e | F f |
| G g | H h | I i | J j | K k | L l | M m |
| N n | Ñ ñ | O o | P p | Q q | R r | S s |
| T t | U u | V v | W w | X x | Y y | Z z |
Fig-1. Rohingya Character Set Table
The character set table of the Rohingya language writing system uses Latin alphabets A to Z along with the two other characters Ç and Ñ shown above in green background. In addition to five normal English vowels (aeiou), the language also uses five accented vowels (áéíóú). Rohingya is one of the most difficult Asian languages, therefore it was a very challenging job to write it using only Latin alphabets. However, the designer's intuitive concepts have made the writing not only perfect, but also, remarkably simple and easy to learn in minutes.
[edit] Usage of c, ç and ñ
C sounds neither k nor s in Rohingya. It sounds equal to sh only. Therefore, Rohingya word shamish must be written as camic (=spoon).
Ç closely sounds like rd, that is, a retroflex r. So sha-Rda should be written as caça (=mat).
Ñ closely sounds like an'h, that is the nasal sound also widely used in Asia. So fan'h-s, should be written as fañs (=five).
[edit] Keyboard
To type Rohingyalish in computers with Microsoft Windows, add US International keyboard from control panel and then remove previous "US" keyboard. To type one of these characters ( áéíóúç ), first type the single quote( ' ) followed by the corresponding character in ( aeiouc ), and to type ( ñ ) first type ( ~ ) followed by ( n ). With US International keyboard setting, ( ', ", ~ and ^ ) work as triggers characters only, so to get them type spacebar after each one.
[edit] Vowels
A Rohingya word may give you two different meanings based on whether it is pronounced in normal (soft) mode or in stressed (hard) mode. For example if the word Ful is pronounced in normal mode, its meaning is Bridge/hole, but in stressed mode its meaning is Flower. To overcome this problem, two types of vowels are used namely normal vowels or stressed vowels.
[edit] Normal vowels
The normal familiar vowels a, e, i, o, u give you soft sounds such as Ful meaning bridge or hole.
[edit] Stressed vowels
The stressed accented vowels á, é, í, ó, ú give you stressed sounds such as Fúl meaning flower.
Examples
Normal vowel usage Stressed vowel usage
Sal = roof, Sál = tree bark
Fan = betel leaf, Fán = trap
Bet = cane (n.), Bét = intention
Tel = oil, Thél= push
Tir = arrow, Tír = up-right position
Fir = person achieved Fír =turn
religious light,
Gor = do, Gór = home
Zor = fever, Zór = rain
Ful = bridge or hole, Fúl = flower
Sul = hair, Súl = skin (v.)
[edit] Phonemic vowels
1 2 3 4 5 Last Fall As - - Men Me Eye - - Hit First Ice Crisis - For Son Old Women Do Put But Use - -
Unlike English language, Rohingya language has fixed the sound of each vowel to a particular sound only, and thus each vowel maintains the same sound in all Rohingya words. In the Phonemic vowels example shown above in tabular form, only words -Last, Men, Hit, For and Put- in the first column show the correct vowel sounds that Rohingyalish chooses to use, and all the other vowel sounds in other columns are not used at all.
But, one disadvantage in doing so is that it lacks one important sound that is the sound of true (o) as used in English word old in the Phonemic vowels example above. Solution to this problem seems to create a new vowel character, but instead, joint-vowels (ou) is used for representing the true (o) sound, as the sound lies in the middle of the two Rohingya sounds (o) and (u).
[edit] Rohingya vowel set
In all, Rohingya has a total of six vowels in each vowel category (normal and stressed) as below.
Normal vowel set..: a e i o u ou Stressed vowel set: á é í ó ú óu
"América on full tour" is an easy to remember English phrase that shows the sound of each Rohingyalish vowel. Similarly, "Alemi modú houli" is an easy to remember Rohingya language phrase which means International Honey Center.
[edit] Examples
Fata (Fa-tha) = leaves (n.) Melé (MayLáy) = can be opened Cíçi (Shí-Rdi) = ladder (note: "ç" represents a retroflex sound) Foró (fawráu) = read Futú (Fu-thú) = baby Gouru (Go-Ru) = cow Ciñçí (Shiñ-Rdí) = letter (note: "ñ" represents a nasal sound)
[edit] Straight and Circular sounds
In Rohingya language, there are mainly two types of sound formations, the straight sound formations and the circular sound formations.
[edit] Straight sounds
Straight sounds are those that are formed by using a single vowel such as a, e, i, o, u and ou. Ou is treated in Rohingyalish as if it is a single character. As discussed earlier, Rohingyalish assigns mono-sound (a fixed sound) to each of these vowels.
[edit] Circular sounds
Circular sounds are those that are formed by using two vowels, the 2nd one being always (i) such as ai, ei, oi and ui. The sound of each vowel pair is explained below.
Ai: pronounced as āy, i, or i?e.
For the sake of simplicity Rohingyalish considers the alphabet y as a consonant only. As a result My, By and etc. are not valid words any more, because y is used here as a vowel. To tackle this problem ai is used in place of y such as Mai and Bai. Similary the English words Hi and Fi are phonetically equal to Hai and Fai in Rohingyalish. Likewise English words Mile, Fine, Rise can be phonetically expressed, in Rohingyalish, as Máil, Fáin, Ráis. These rules greatly reduce the ambiguity in vowel usages and make the language much easier.
Ei: pronounced as æi, aei, or a?e.
Rohingyalish ei is almost equal to English ai. For example, English words main, fail, tailor, mail, nail, rail, sail, tail are phonetically equal to méin, féil, téilar, méil, néil, réil, séil, théil in Rohingyalish. Similarly the words cane, sale, same, ate, plane can be phonetically written as kéin, séil, séim, éit, pléin in Rohingyalish.
Oi: pronounced as oui or oei (not wy, wai, oy, or y).
This is one of the most frequently used circular sound in Rohingya Language. Unfortunately, the sound of oi here is different from that of English one. English oi sounds like wy or oy such as in English words soil, coin, noice, rollroyce. But Rohingyalish oi sounds like oui or oei such as in Rohingya words Loi (=take), Boi (=sit), Ói (=yes), Goijjé (=done), Soil (=rice), Thoin (=tin), Moinna (=sharp) and so on. It is really hard to find an English word that can represent the Rohingya oi sound.
Ui: pronounced as wui.
This sound is the same as it is used in English words such as Quik, Quit, Buik. Some examples of Rohingya words are Kuissa (=worm), Tui (=you), Muillo (=value), Gúijja (=covered).
[edit] Examples
(1)Straight-Sound Words:
Fatol (Fa-thol) = thin
Meçi (May-Rdi) = soil
Bála (Bha-la) = good
Salu (Sa-lu) = fast
Bouli (Bo-li) = fatty
(2)Circular-Sound Words:
Gail (Gy-il) = scolding
Beil (Bay-il) = sun
Soil (Sou-il) = rice
Tui (Thui) = you, you are
(3)Circular and Straight Sound together Words:
Failla (Fy-illa) = dish
Mouloi (Mo-loui) = teacher
Balúic (Ba-lúish)= pillow
(4)A Rohingya sentense that gives all circular sounds.
Hailla Meillós Tui Óineh?
(Hylla May-il-loss thui óui-nayy?) = Yesterday opened, you, yes?
[edit] Long sounds and variants
[edit] Long sounds
In Rohingya language, the meaning of a word can change if you extend the sound of a vowel in a word. So to extend the sound Rohingyalish uses double vowels as illustrated below.
Normal Sound(single vowel) Extended Sound(double vowels) do (Dau) = give, doo (Daw) = knife no (Nau) = nine(9) noo (Naw) = small boat zo (Zau) = go zoo (Zaw) = lucky period dhor (Dhau-r)= afraid dhoor (Dhaw-r) = heavy rain mana (Ma-na) = make agree maana (Ma-a-na)= free nek (nay-k) = husband neel (nay-el) = leave nil (nil) = bamboo-skin biili (be-e-li)= birth given lady mur (Mu-r) = deep muu (mu-wu) = face
In the examples above, single o, a, e, i or u are used in the words (left side) for short sounds, while double oo, aa, ee, ii or uu are used in the words (right side) for long sounds.
[edit] Variants
Rohingya language is very sensitive in extending the sound, as there are four ways of extending the sound. The first one, which is the simplest, uses double vowels as mentioned above such as aa, ee, ii, oo, uu. The other three variants differed on how double vowels are replaced with accented vowels. You can replace the first vowel, the second vowel, or both vowels with accented one such as (áa), (aá), or (áá).
Four varients
of long vowels Pronunciation Meaning
1. gaa (Ga-a) = body
2. gáa (Gha-a) = infection
3. gaá (Ga-ah) = sing
4. gáá (Gha-ah) = expressing animal or natural sound
Example:
Gaat gáa óiye-dé manúic-cwá gana gaár.
The man with infection in the body is singing.
In the example above, the 1st word has double normal vowels aa that gives normal steady extension of sound. The 2nd word is started with normal sound (normal a) and ended with raised sound (accented á). Th 3rd word is started with raised sound(á) but ended with normal(a) sound. The 4th word is both started and ended with raised sounds(áá) which is not actually used in normal Rohingya talks but rather embedded in the talks to simulate the animal or natural sounds such as Dúúm the falling sound.
[edit] Examples
fool (Fawl) = mad, foól (Fau-auhl) = fault hoor (Hawr) = cloth, hoór (Hau-auhr) = curse muu (Mu-u) = face, muúntu(Mu-uhn-tu) = in front of neel (Ne-el) = out, meél (Me-ehl) = factory boól (Bo-ohl)= ball, sóol (sauh-aul) = sheep
[edit] Dual Alphabets
There are some Rohingya sounds for which no direct alphabet exists, and usually, the solution to that problem is to use two (or more) joint-alphabets as shown below. For the natural easiness of Rohingya language, Rohingyalish has in some cases, interchanged the sound of the original alphabet with the sound of the joint-alphabets such as D with Dh, and T with Th. Therefore 'D' is pronounced as English 'The' and, 'Dh' is pronounced as English 'Di' (not Dy). Likewise, 'Ta' is pronounced as English 'Tha' and, 'Tha' is pronounced as English 'Ta' as seen below.
Rohingya English Examples Examples Alphabets equivalent Rohingya words English words D = the Dut(=milk), Dak(=mark) Father, Gather Dh = d Dhañço(=thick), Dhak(=call) Dome, Dog H' = h Háva(=air),Hát(=hand) Hello H = kh Háiyi(=eaten), Hóro(=soar) Khaled(name) Kh = kh Kháled(name), Khátu(name) Khaled, Khatu(name) N = n Norom(=soft), Nun(=salt) North, Noon Ng = ng Ngapúra(village name) Ngapura(village name) Ny = ny Nyong-Cóng(village name) Nyaung Chaung(village name) T = th Tua(=search) Teeth, Thin Th = t Thambu(=tent) Tent, Tin Ts = ts Tsáni(=next in Arabic) Tsunami
[edit] Rohingya Grammar
[edit] Definite Articles
1. If nouns end with a vowel then the article is either án or wá if singular, or ún if plural.
Usually wá is used for round-fatty objects, and án for flat-thin objects.
( singular ) ( plural )
Kéti án (the farm) Kéti ún (the farms)
Fothú án (the picture) Fothú ún (the pictures)
Fata wá (the leave) Fata ún (the leaves)
dhou~r wá (the head-man) dhou~r ún (the head-men)
Lou ún (the blood)
2. If nouns end with a consonant then the article is the consonant plus án or wá for singular or ún for plural.
Debal lán (the wall) Debal lún (the walls) Mes sán (the table) Mes sún (the tables) Kitap pwá (the book) Kitap pún (the books) Manúic cwá (the man) Manúic cún (the men)
3. If nouns end with r, then the article is g plus án or wá for singular or ún for plural.
Tar gán (the wire) Tar gún (the wires) Duar gán (the door) Duar gún (the doors) Kuñir gwá (the dog) Kuñir gún (the dogs) Faár gwá (the mountain) Faár gún (the mountains)
[edit] Indefinite Articles
Indefinite articles can be used either before or after the noun. Uggwá usually is used for roll/round/fatty shaped objects and ekkán is for thin/flat shaped objects.
( singular ) ( plural )
Uggwá fata (a leave) Hodún fata (some leaves)
Ekkán fothú (a picture) Hodún Fothú (some pictures)
-or- -or-
Fata uggwá (a leave) Fata hodún (some leaves)
Fothú ekkán (a picture) Fothú hodún (some pictures)
[edit] Sentence Syntax
Unlike English, Rohingya word order is Subject + Object + Verb.
Subject Object Verb Aññí(I) bát(rice) hái(eat). Ite(He) TV(TV) saá(watches). Ibá(She) sairkél(bicycle) soré(rides). Ítara(They) hamot(to work) za(go).
[edit] Tenses
Rohingya Language can identify all 12 different forms of tenses as shown in the examples below. In these tenses, the helping verb félai shows perfect action like English "has/have" and félaat shows perfect continuous action like English "has/have been". The helping verb táki and táikki refer similar to that of English "be" and "been".
Verb-form-suffix (basic and/or helping verb) changes in two ways; by degree of person as well as by tense. The suffix ~ir, ~yi, ~lám, ~youm are used for the first person, the suffix ~or, ~yó, ~lá, ~bá for the 2nd person, and the suffix ~ar, ~ye, ~l, ~bou for the 3rd person. Similarly the suffix ~ir, ~or, ~ar refer present continuous tense, the suffix ~yi, ~yó, ~ye, refer to present perfect tense, the suffix ~lám, ~lá, ~l refer to past and the suffix ~youm, ~bá, ~bou refers to the future tense.
For 1st person ( I ):
1. Present (a)Aññí hái. (I eat.) (b)Aññí háir. (I am eating.) (c)Aññí hái félaiyi. (I have eaten.) (d)Aññí hái félair. (I have been eating.) 2. Past (a)Aññí háiyi. (I ate.) Note: refer near past. Aññí háailam. (I ate.) Note: refer far past. (b)Aññí háat táikkilám. (I was eating.) (c)Aññí hái félailám. (I had eaten.) (d)Aññí hái félaat táikkilám. (I had been eating.) 3. Future (a)Aññí háiyoum. (I will eat.) (b)Aññí háat tákiyoum. (I will be eating.) (c)Aññí hái félaiyoum. (I will have eaten.) (d)Aññí hái félaat tákiyoum. (I will have been eating.)
For 2nd person ( You ):
1. Present (a)Tuñí/Oñne hóo. [Tui hós.] (You eat.) (b)Tuñí/Oñne hóor. [Tui hóor.] (You are eating.) (c)Tuñí/Oñne hái félaiyó. [Tui hái félaiyós]. (You have eaten.) (d)Tuñí/Oñne hái féloor. [Tui hái féloor]. (You have been eating.) 2. Past (a)Tuñí/Oñne háiyo. [Tui háiyós.] (You ate.) Note: refer near past. Tuñí/Oñne háailá. [Tui háailí.] (You ate.) Note: refer far past. (b)Tuñí/Oñne háat táikkilá. [Tui háat táikkilí.] (You were eating.) (c)Tuñí/Oñne hái félailá. [Tui hái félailí.] (You had eaten.) (d)Tuñí/Oñne hái félaat táikkilá.[Tui hái félaat táikkilí.](You had been eating.) 3. Future (a)Tuñí/Oñne háibá. [Tui háibí.] (You will eat.) (b)Tuñí/Oñne háat tákibá. [Tui háat tákibí.] (You will be eating.) (c)Tuñí/Oñne hái félaibá. [Tui hái félaibí.] (You will have eaten.) (d)Tuñí/Oñne hái félaat tákibá. [Tui hái félaat tákibí.] (You will have been eating.)
For 3rd persons ( He/She/They ):
1. Present (a)Ite/Ibá/Itará há. (He/She/They eats/eats/eat.) (b)Ite/Ibá/Itará hár. (He/She/They is/is/are eating.) (c)Ite/Ibá/Itará hái félaiye. (He/She/They has/has/have eaten.) (d)Ite/Ibá/Itará hái félaar. (He/She/They has/has/have been eating.) 2. Past (a)Ite/Ibá/Itará háaiye. (He/She/They ate.) Note: refer near past. Ite/Ibá/Itará háail. (He/She/They ate.) Note: refer far past. (b)Ite/Ibá/Itará háat táikkil. (He/She/They was/was/were eating.) (c)Ite/Ibá/Itará hái félail. (He/She/They had eaten.) (d)Ite/Ibá/Itará hái félaat táikkil. (He/She/They had been eating.) 3. Future (a)Ite/Ibá/Itará háibou. (He/She/They will eat.) (b)Ite/Ibá/Itará háat tákibou. (He/She/They will be eating.) (c)Ite/Ibá/Itará hái félaibou. (He/She/They will has/has/have eaten.) (d)Ite/Ibá/Itará hái félaat tákibou. (He/She/They will has/has/have been eating.)
[edit] Pronouns
| Number | Person | Gender | Pronouns | Possessive adjectives |
|||
| Subject | Object | Possessive | Reflexive | ||||
| Singular | 1st | m/f ( I ) | aññí | añáre | añár | aññínize | añár |
| 2nd | m/f ( you ) | tuñí tui oñne |
tuáñre toré oñnoré |
tuáñr tor oñnor |
tuñínize tuinize oñnenize |
tuáñr tor oñnor |
|
| 3rd | m ( he ) | ite * te * uite ** íte ** |
itaré taré uitaré ítare |
itar tar uitar ítar |
itenize tenize uitenize ítenize |
itar tar uitar ítar |
|
| m/f ( he/she ) | ibá * uibá ** íba ** |
ibáre uibáre íbaré |
ibár uibár íbar |
ibánize uibánize íbanize |
ibár uibár íbar |
||
| n1 ( it ) n2 ( it ) |
yián ibá |
yiánóre ibáre |
yiánór ibár |
yiánnize ibánize |
yiánór ibár |
||
| Plural | 1st | m/f ( we ) | añára | añáráre | añárár | añáránize | añárár |
| 2nd | m/f ( you ) | tuáñrá | tuáñráre | tuáñrár | tuáñránize | tuáñrár | |
| 3rd | m/f ( they ) | itará * tará * uitará ** ítara ** |
itaráre taráre uitaráre ítararé |
itarár tarár uitarár ítarar |
itaránize taránize uitaránize ítaranize |
itarár tarár uitarár ítarar |
|
| n1 ( they ) n2 ( they ) |
iín * uiín ** |
iínóre uiínóre |
iínór uiínór |
iínnize uiínnize |
iínór uiínór |
||
Gender: m=male, f=female, n=neuter., *=the person or object is near., **=the person or object is far.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
For further information on Rohingya Language please refer the following links.
